Preview — Body Punishment
by Maggie Lamond Simone

Body Punishment: OCD, Addiction, and Finding the Courage to Heal

Humor columnist Maggie Lamond Simone's painful journey provides insight for the thousands of others who similarly cut, starve, pick, drink, pluck, purge, and otherwise hurt themselves in private in order to survive in public. She explores the issues of substance abuse, anxiety, and depression that commonly occur with OCD, all in an effort to further the dialog around mentaHumor columnist Maggie Lamond Simone's painful journey provides insight for the thousands of others who similarly cut, starve, pick, drink, pluck, purge, and otherwise hurt themselves in private in order to survive in public. She explores the issues of substance abuse, anxiety, and depression that commonly occur with OCD, all in an effort to further the dialog around mental illness and eliminate the shame, because "the shame . . . the shame is a killer."

Maggie Lamond Simone is an award-winning columnist and author. Her first column anthology, From Beer to Maternity, was released in November 2009. She has a black belt in Kenpo karate and a master's degree from the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University....more

This book hit home for me a bit. My husband suffers from a milder form of OCD. Well he keeps most of his symptoms to himself (like the author did) but one of his symptoms he does share with me is his incessant counting.

The term OCD is tossed around a lot and people use it in a joking manner. Think of all the “Funny” memes you see on the topic on social media. The truth is OCD is a very serious mental illness that is no joking matter.

It is a mental illness that does not get talked about much becaThis book hit home for me a bit. My husband suffers from a milder form of OCD. Well he keeps most of his symptoms to himself (like the author did) but one of his symptoms he does share with me is his incessant counting.

The term OCD is tossed around a lot and people use it in a joking manner. Think of all the “Funny” memes you see on the topic on social media. The truth is OCD is a very serious mental illness that is no joking matter.

It is a mental illness that does not get talked about much because those that suffer from it do not always discuss it with anyone, including therapists. If left untreated it can destroy your life.

I commend the author for not only getting out of her comfort zone to seek treatment but to also put herself out there and write this book.

I hope the book helps others to understand the illness and help those that suffer have the courage to seek treatment. ...more

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MAGGIE LAMOND SIMONE is a national award-winning columnist and author. Her memoir, “Body Punishment: OCD, Addiction and Finding the Courage to Heal,” was released in April 2015 (Central Recovery Press), earning her a spot at the 2015 BEA in New York City. Her essay collection, “From Beer to Maternity,” was a 2010 USA Book News Finalist for humor, and her columns can also be found in “The Zen of MiMAGGIE LAMOND SIMONE is a national award-winning columnist and author. Her memoir, “Body Punishment: OCD, Addiction and Finding the Courage to Heal,” was released in April 2015 (Central Recovery Press), earning her a spot at the 2015 BEA in New York City. Her essay collection, “From Beer to Maternity,” was a 2010 USA Book News Finalist for humor, and her columns can also be found in “The Zen of Midlife Mothering” (2013), “Not Your Mother’s Book on Do-It-Yourselfers” (2013), “P.S. What I Didn’t Say” (2009), “Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Resolution” (2008), “Chicken Soup for the New Mom’s Soul” (2007), “Chicken Soup for the Soul in Menopause” (2007), “Misadventures of Moms and Disasters of Dads” (2004), “Hello, Goodbye” (2004), Cosmopolitan magazine, and Notebook: Magazine (Australia). She also has an e-book, “POSTED! Parenting, Pets and Menopause, One Status Update at a Time” (2011).

Her humor and observational essays have appeared since 2002 in Family Times, The Parenting Guide of Central New York, an award-winning monthly parenting magazine. Her columns also appeared in the Sunday edition of the Syracuse Herald American (cir. 250,000) from 1995 through 2001. She’s won multiple national awards through Parenting Publications of America, including multiple Gold Awards for Humor and for Personal Essay.

Ms. Simone has been a monthly guest on WNTQ-Syracuse (93Q) since 2005, and she has also been a guest on NPR. She was a frequent panelist on the local PBS affiliate’s monthly “Media Roundtable.” In promoting “From Beer to Maternity” and “Body Punishment,” she has been featured on the ABC, Fox and PBS affiliates nationwide, as well as numerous radio programs in the United States, Canada and the UK. She is an adjunct professor in the department of communications at SUNY Oswego, Oswego, N.Y. and Onondaga Community College, Syracuse, N.Y., and a blogger for The Huffington Post.

She is a graduate of Hobart and William Smith College (Geneva, N.Y.) and Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University (Syracuse, N.Y.). She lives in Central New York with her husband and two children....more

“One such cut on my skinny six-year-old leg began healing with a scab that was hard and crusty over the broken skin. As I ran my fingers over it one night, I suddenly felt the need to pick it off, and I did. The pain was momentarily excruciating, then settled into a dull stabbing where it was bleeding again. The part of me that was mortified at what I had done was soon stomped into submission by another part of me – a part that longed to reproduce that momentary excruciating pain again and again. I was slightly disturbed by this turn of events, and way too embarrassed to tell my mother. So I didn’t, for about 40 years.

“Not unlike alcoholism, the cycle of OCD continues in solitude and isolation … Even in therapy it never occurred to me to talk about plucking out my eyelashes and eyebrows. Not once did I bring it up – not once did it occur to me bring it up, the shame was so deep and ingrained. Fortunately, over the years alcoholism has gotten more and more screen time and does not carry quite the cloak of shame it once did. You won’t necessarily find us shouting it from the rooftops, but then again there are support groups in high schools these days. Hopefully OCD will one day find a similar degree of understanding in the general audience, because that understanding and dialogue are what we need to break not necessarily the cycle of repetitive behavior - because sometimes we can and sometimes we can’t - but to break the cycle of shame. Because I can tell you from experience . . . the shame is a killer.”
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